Internet surfers/users can be addicted to the internet. You are an internet addict if the internet is the first thing you crave for in the morning or if you obsessively check your email even in the middle of the night.

According to experts, Internet addiction disorder -suffered by 10% of all internet surfers - is a pathological condition that can lead to anxiety and severe depression.

[Internet addiction is currently classified by mental health professionals as an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), a mild to severe mental health condition that results in an urge to engage in ritualistic thoughts and behavior, such as excessive handwashing or, in the case of the Internet, Web surfing.]

According to Dr. Pinhas Dannon, a psychiatrist from Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine:

" To better diagnose and treat Internet addiction, it should be grouped with other extreme addictive disorders such as gambling, sex addiction, and kleptomania.

But we are saying that we need to look at Internet addiction differently. Internet addiction is not manifesting itself as an 'urge.'

It's more than that. It's a deep 'craving.'

And if we don't make the change in the way we classify Internet addiction, we won't be able to treat it in the proper way."

Hmmm....what do you call professional bloggers (like me) and those that have other internet-based work at home? Do we fall into the internet addict category?

Addiction is a very strong medical word. BUT even those that rely most on the internet for their jobs and source of living have lives outside of the internet as well. I am imagining work-at-home mothers that use the internet a lot.

Maybe about just 10% of the internet users can be considered addict. That is if they are using the internet to some extreme of not doing anything else.

And since this is an addiction (according to Dr. Dannon), internet addiction can be treated effectively much like in the treatment of kleptomania or compulsive gambling with serotonin blockers.

I am a bit uncomfortable with this treatment part. What do you think?

Find more details from Science Daily.